Kim Junsu Solo Exhibition 'Sittin in a Saucer'

Artist Note

I once tried to work out, averaging how many paintings I make in a month, how many canvases I'd fill in a year — and over a lifetime of painting for twenty, thirty years. Limited-edition sneakers, two or three models released each month, carry what kind of scarcity that makes people line up and pay a premium to get them? The number of winners in this month's lottery for a Nike collaboration sneaker is, by rough count, already far greater than my entire lifetime output — so why have my paintings never been treated with the same regard as a limited edition?

I believe that in contemporary art, painting's most notable possibility lies in its value as physical goods, clearly distinguishable as a commodity. Openly revealing and exploring the desire to sell one's work is an essential question worth grappling with for artists working today. I think the first role of my paintings is simply to fill a wall somewhere, to furnish a space. Only when I set a price for the work that reflects the market and reach an equivalent exchange both sides agree to do I finally confirm my own existence. When my choice to live as a working artist draws both criticism and worry from those around me, and when I try to assign some intangible, sublime meaning to a practice that drags on without visible results, I always feel exhausted, wretched, and empty.

What interests me is less what I want to say through my work than deepening and exposing the sense that I must be better than average. I want to express as much as possible, laying bare, one by one, the small passing thoughts of the moment. I believe that lining up these personal, trivial daily records that catch my eye as images will always yield some meaningful, interesting clue.

Invitation

Kim Junsu raises an intuitive, direct question about the commodity nature of art. His subject matter is bound up with the everyday — which draws little attention on its own, but sometimes stirs memory and feeling, becoming something singular. We hope this exhibition offers a chance to look back on the everyday we too often let slip by, and to encounter works that move you. We are pleased to invite you to Kim Junsu's solo exhibition, "Sittin in a Saucer."

- **Exhibiting artist** — Kim Junsu - **Venue** — SOOHOH GALLERY - **Inquiries** — 031-713-0287